The Forty Shilling Freeholder of Blarney Lane
The discovery of Timothy Murphy and Cork's first electoral register.
by Ruairi Lynch
The discovery of Timothy Murphy and Cork's first electoral register.
by Ruairi Lynch
In the winter of 1838, a hurried register of property owning males was made in both Cork and Dublin cities.
The reason for this hurried check? A register had been ordered by the British Parliament for Irish city magistrates to record the precise details of all males who owned or rented property valued at between forty shillings and nine pounds and those who owned or rented property valued at ten pounds or more.
The reason? Voting rights. Owning or renting a property valued at forty shillings or more gave the male owner a vote in Parliamentary and Borough elections. Voting was a relatively new privilege in Ireland, particularly as Roman Catholic males had only been allowed vote since 1793. (Female suffrage was still over a century away).
Timothy Murphy, then aged around seventy two and widowed, had his name and basic details such as residence address, occupation and literacy noted amongst 56,200 others in Cork & Dublin cities.
Almost one hundred and eighty years later, I found these scant details for Timothy, my great, great, great, great Grandfather almost completely by chance. This brief entry of an ancestor was given as supporting information as part of a nineteen volume Parliamentary report published in 1839. This remains the only recorded evidence so far of his existence besides his gravestone in Cork's St. Joseph's Graveyard.
This register of property owning or renting males became the first register in Ireland of those entitled to vote and had only come about as a result of the watershed "Great Reform Act" of 1832. The introduction of this Parliamentary Act in turn triggered possibly the first political investigation or tribunal which became known as the ‘Fictitious Votes (Ireland) Committee’, set up to investigate widespread allegations of vote rigging and electoral corruption in the early 1830’s throughout Britain and Ireland. Directly as a result of this investigation, Timothy amongst thousands of other males, was recorded and the notions of franchise and voting rights changed substantially.
Politics aside, the brief entry gives an insight to the man and the times.
Timothy is listed as a resident in Blarney Lane, Cork (now Blarney Street).
Timothy's occupation was classed as a labourer and he was noted to be a Freeholder (a man who owned his property and rented the land on which it was situated from the Crown or rented his property - all valued as more than Forty shillings) under what was termed the "Forty Shilling Freeholder" category.
He also appears in the list recorded as “Voters who are Marksmen…”. In other words, it was noted that the voter could only ‘make their mark’ with an X. Timothy, like the greater majority of the population aged over sixty of the time, was illiterate.
The reason for this hurried check? A register had been ordered by the British Parliament for Irish city magistrates to record the precise details of all males who owned or rented property valued at between forty shillings and nine pounds and those who owned or rented property valued at ten pounds or more.
The reason? Voting rights. Owning or renting a property valued at forty shillings or more gave the male owner a vote in Parliamentary and Borough elections. Voting was a relatively new privilege in Ireland, particularly as Roman Catholic males had only been allowed vote since 1793. (Female suffrage was still over a century away).
Timothy Murphy, then aged around seventy two and widowed, had his name and basic details such as residence address, occupation and literacy noted amongst 56,200 others in Cork & Dublin cities.
Almost one hundred and eighty years later, I found these scant details for Timothy, my great, great, great, great Grandfather almost completely by chance. This brief entry of an ancestor was given as supporting information as part of a nineteen volume Parliamentary report published in 1839. This remains the only recorded evidence so far of his existence besides his gravestone in Cork's St. Joseph's Graveyard.
This register of property owning or renting males became the first register in Ireland of those entitled to vote and had only come about as a result of the watershed "Great Reform Act" of 1832. The introduction of this Parliamentary Act in turn triggered possibly the first political investigation or tribunal which became known as the ‘Fictitious Votes (Ireland) Committee’, set up to investigate widespread allegations of vote rigging and electoral corruption in the early 1830’s throughout Britain and Ireland. Directly as a result of this investigation, Timothy amongst thousands of other males, was recorded and the notions of franchise and voting rights changed substantially.
Politics aside, the brief entry gives an insight to the man and the times.
Timothy is listed as a resident in Blarney Lane, Cork (now Blarney Street).
Timothy's occupation was classed as a labourer and he was noted to be a Freeholder (a man who owned his property and rented the land on which it was situated from the Crown or rented his property - all valued as more than Forty shillings) under what was termed the "Forty Shilling Freeholder" category.
He also appears in the list recorded as “Voters who are Marksmen…”. In other words, it was noted that the voter could only ‘make their mark’ with an X. Timothy, like the greater majority of the population aged over sixty of the time, was illiterate.
To fully understand the importance of Timothy’s name being recorded as a Forty Shilling Freeholder, we need to examine the Ireland and Cork City of the period.
When Timothy Murphy was a young man, a jaundiced but probably accurate view can be found of Cork city with a Frenchman, Jacques-Louis de Bougrenet (1767-1823), Chevalier de La Tocnaye who visited Ireland in 1797.
A factually caustic observer, Jacques-Louis was an émigré of noble birth who had fled revolutionary France. He was certainly popular and appears to have been a welcome and entertaining guest as he stayed with various notables and churchmen en-route, collecting onward letters of recommendation to stay with other highly placed society figures and in stately homes. Travelling mostly by foot and occasionally by stage coach, Jacques-Louis visited much of Ireland, England, Scotland and Scandinavia writing and publishing his punchy, pacey reviews that are quiet readable today two centuries later. These give quite an insight into social conditions at the time and no exception are Jacques-Louis’s observations on his visit to Cork in c.1797 which survive in his “Promenade d'un Français dans l'Irlande”:
A factually caustic observer, Jacques-Louis was an émigré of noble birth who had fled revolutionary France. He was certainly popular and appears to have been a welcome and entertaining guest as he stayed with various notables and churchmen en-route, collecting onward letters of recommendation to stay with other highly placed society figures and in stately homes. Travelling mostly by foot and occasionally by stage coach, Jacques-Louis visited much of Ireland, England, Scotland and Scandinavia writing and publishing his punchy, pacey reviews that are quiet readable today two centuries later. These give quite an insight into social conditions at the time and no exception are Jacques-Louis’s observations on his visit to Cork in c.1797 which survive in his “Promenade d'un Français dans l'Irlande”:
“I arrived at Cork, the dullest and dirtiest town which can be imagined. The people met with are yawning, and one is stopped every minute by funerals, or hideous troops of beggars, or pigs which run the streets in hundreds, and yet this town is one of the richest and most commercial of Europe. The principal merchants are nearly all foreigners, Scotch for the most part, and in the short period of ten years are able sometimes to make large fortunes.
There is no town where there is so much needful to do to make the place agreeable to a great number of the poor inhabitants. The spirit of commerce and self-interest has laid hold of all branches of the administration. For example, it would be very easy to furnish the town with a public fountain, but the person or company which has the privilege of bringing water in pipes to the houses thinks that by the building of such a fountain there would be lost a number of guinea subscriptions. Therefore, in order that the validity of an obscure individual should be satisfied, thirty thousand inhabitants must suffer the punishment of Tantalus. I have seen poor people obliged to collect the water falling from the roofs on a rainy day, or to take it even from the stream in the streets. All the time there is perhaps hardly a place which it would be so easy to supply with water as Cork, by reason of the heights which surround it. There is even a spring or fountain about a mile away, which is called Sunday's Well, which appears to me to have sufficient water for the supply of a public fountain in the centre of the town. The water supply for private houses is drawn from the bed of the river a mile above the town. Why should it be so difficult to do for the public what interest has done for the richer classes ?
The dirt of the streets in the middle of the town is shameful, and as if that were not enough, it would seem as if it were wished to hinder the wind and the sun from drying the filth, for the two ends of the street are terminated by prisons, which close the way entirely and prevent the air from circulating.
The grain market in a town of such considerable size ought naturally to be much frequented. Actually it has been placed on the first floor of a building, and the crowd can only reach it by a stairway two or three feet wide, exposed to all weathers; and to make matters worse, the steps are so much worn that they are slippery and dangerous. One would imagine that there should be nobody allowed on this stairway excepting those who come to or go from the market ; but the most disgusting beggars have taken possession of the wall-side and assail the passers-by with their cries, while presenting a porringer or bag in which they are nearly obliged to throw a handful of meal. I have seen a poor woman fall the whole length of the stairs, upsetting nearly everyone on them, and breaking her own arm.
The meat market is the only one which is as it ought to be. It is new, and it is to be hoped that the magistrates will, in the end, think of the other places where the public must congregate.
Although the people are very poor, nothing or no one can persuade the mothers to send their children to the poorhouse or almshouse. They are afraid that they would be sent away to other places — a thing which formerly did happen, but a less cruel system is observed now. The mothers wish that their children should not be brought up in the Protestant religion, which is professed in these establishments. A frequent sight is one of these poor unfortunates with two children on her back and another in her apron, holding another by the hand, and beseeching for the cold charity of the passers-by, who being accustomed to such sights generally turn away their eyes. The poor woman, however, also accustomed to such indifference, consoles herself by smoking a black pipe, so short that the fire almost seems to be in her mouth.
The rich people accuse the poor of being content to live in dirt and to sleep with their cattle. They like it no better than their rich brethren and sisters; necessity, cruel necessity, is the reason for their manner of life. Their misery is such that they become indifferent to decencies. Let them be furnished with the means of changing this life. Let them be put in a position to cultivate the decencies, and know some of the comforts of life, and it will be seen how unjust are the accusations which have been made.
The peasant is idle here; but of what use would activity be to him? The price of his day's work hardly
suffices to maintain him and his family. Costs of various food commodities have been multiplied by three, and yet the price of labour remains the same. Over nearly the whole of Ireland the labourer earns only sixpence a day; his wife and his children are hopeless about doing anything in a country where there are no manufactures. What can, then, such an unfortunate family do? The sixpence suffices only to furnish potatoes and water. Should the father fall sick or die, the poor mother is obliged to quit the country with her children and wander, begging a horrible subsistence. Cursed be the cruel man who first dared to make game of the misery of his fellow. It is one of the shocking artifices of the avaricious, for immediately when we have come to laugh at the ills of others, we
feel ourselves freed from any necessity to help them.
The climate of Cork is rainy in the extreme. It rains every day in life, and the temperature of the air has perhaps influenced the character of the inhabitants. It would not be incorrect to call this country ' The Land of Whim and Spleen.' There are a great number of people here who are called 'characters,' and who have all sorts of strange whims and crotchets. One will never sit down to table for fear of being suffocated by the odour of the viands, and takes his meals alone in the vestibule ; another spends his income on favourite animals, or ' pets,' as they are called ; a third, after having enchanted you by a beautiful voice and charming music, finishes up by boxing you. There is onewith a red cap who gallops through the streets and enters shops on horseback, when he wants to buy anything. There is one who plays the bagpipes and who is willing to be disinherited from nearly two thousand pounds sterlingper annum, rather than give up his pipes, which are at present his sole source of income. There is a man who believes that everybody wishes to poison him. He watches for the entry of any person into a baker's shop, follows him, and when the stranger has bought a loaf he seizes it and runs off with it, believing that the bakers are not anxious to poison anybody but himself. He acts the same way in butchers' shops. Another has constituted himself children's nurse, and washes, rubs, combs, and wipes them. I could mention many other examples of these ' characters,' but have said enough.
There is no place of shelter for the weak-minded of Cork — it is a hideous spectacle to see them in the streets. For the greater part, it is true, they are quiet, but it is so cruel and humiliating to see human nature degraded that an effort should be made to separate them from society. Yet it must be admitted that the city of Cork has recently made great progress in commerce, increase of houses, and of inhabitants, and, to some degree, in their amelioration. The city stands on several little marshy islands in the middle of the river, and it is from this circumstance that it takes its name, for Cork means ' muddy ' in Irish, and it is passably well named. The narrow canals which separate the islands are only filled with water at high tide, and so destroy considerably the salubrity of the air.
It would seem to be absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the town that the principal magistrates, for a dozen years, should be strong and prudent men, whose judgment would not be narrowed to the dust of their offices, and who would not be so much accustomed to count halfpennies and farthings, or to think of interest at four, five or six per cent. In the whole of Great Britain, the Mayor or Provost is always elected from amongst the merchants and general traders, the inhabitants justly confiding their interests to one who has a commercial career. This arrangement works very well in towns that are much frequented, where the opinion of the merchant is enlightened by that of a large public, and of strangers who may visit the place ; but in towns where the merchant can have no ideas other than his own, or where, being a foreigner, his sole aim is to gather as much money as possible, and quit the country afterwards, it must be evident that the embellishments and amelioration of the city, of which he is a principal magistrate for a year, will not interest him very much.
I believe that what I have said may explain the little progress which Cork has made in the arts and in matters of public welfare and interest. I imagine that if a man of character generally esteemed (Lord Shannon, for instance) would consent, during several years, to clean this Augean stable, he would be actuated by a desire for the public good, instead of by self-interest, and he would not be found to retard the construction of establishments required by the mass of the inhabitants because the revenues of the city might diminish by a few shillings or pounds.
Since I have extended my remarks on this subject so much, the reader will perhaps want to know what are the ameliorations of which I speak, and what I think the public -spirited Mayor might do. I shall mention a few of the principal, and in a manner most concise. First of all, demolish the two hideous prisons which are at the end of the bridges joining this muddy island with the banks of the river and build new, outside the town, in an airy position. Clean the streets — don't permit the inhabitants to allow their pigs to roam wherever they may seek pasture, and don't let these pigs be seen after their throats have been cut. Build a grain market in a suitable position. Establish public schools and hospitals where the people may be sure that their children are instructed in the religion they wish to follow, and not in that which others wish them to follow. Build an asylum for the insane. Furnish the city with public fountains. Clear the quays of the sheds which disfigure them. Encourage, as far as possible, manufactures of all kinds, and establish a House of Industry, so as to get rid of the beggars which dishonour the streets. Have public works in which every man wanting bread may find the means to earn it...
I am convinced that if these plans could be carried out during fifty years, Cork would become more important than Dublin itself, on account of the safety and fine situation of its port. The principal exportation is at present of salted meat; beasts are killed in the season by thousands, and the season over, there is nothing to do. I have known a merchant who, from what I am told, kills every year between twenty and twenty-five thousand pigs, which statement gave me occasion to say to him that he was the greatest murderer of hogs I ever knew. This digression is a little long, and may perhaps appear fastidious to some who do not take much interest in Cork, but it is more for the Irish than the foreigner that I write, and I hope that the purity of my motive will be taken as excuse. “
https://archive.org/stream/frenchmanswalkth00latouoft/frenchmanswalkth00latouoft_djvu.txt
Ireland in the 1830’s
Perhaps little had changed since Jacques-Louis' assesment thirty years earlier. Ireland was impoverished, economically disadvantaged and politically tense. Two rebellions against British rule in 1798 and 1803 had ended in failure but was sufficient to spook the government. The Irish parliament sitting in Dublin had been abolished in 1801 with the Act of Union which constitutionally made Ireland part of the British state and was largely be seen as an attempt to redress some of the grievances behind the 1798 rising and to prevent it from destabilising Britain or providing a base for foreign invasion. Not enough to prevent another uprising in 1803 which ended as quickly as begun.
As the century went on, the British Parliament gradually took over from the monarch as the executive as well as legislative branch of government. Part of the Union's attraction for many Irish Catholics and Protestant Dissenters was the promised abolition of the remaining Penal Laws then in force and the granting of Catholic Emancipation.
Perhaps little had changed since Jacques-Louis' assesment thirty years earlier. Ireland was impoverished, economically disadvantaged and politically tense. Two rebellions against British rule in 1798 and 1803 had ended in failure but was sufficient to spook the government. The Irish parliament sitting in Dublin had been abolished in 1801 with the Act of Union which constitutionally made Ireland part of the British state and was largely be seen as an attempt to redress some of the grievances behind the 1798 rising and to prevent it from destabilising Britain or providing a base for foreign invasion. Not enough to prevent another uprising in 1803 which ended as quickly as begun.
As the century went on, the British Parliament gradually took over from the monarch as the executive as well as legislative branch of government. Part of the Union's attraction for many Irish Catholics and Protestant Dissenters was the promised abolition of the remaining Penal Laws then in force and the granting of Catholic Emancipation.
Penal Laws
The Penal laws were essentially discriminatory laws introduced in an attempt to force Irish Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters (such as local Presbyterians) to accept the reformed Anglican Church and established Church of Ireland.
These wide ranging laws implemented for years required that Catholic bishops were banished completely from the country, while Parish Priests had to be ‘registered’ and also take the Oath of Abjuration. In ‘education’, Catholic & Dissenter were forbidden to have schools of their own or to have their children educated by teachers of their faiths, none could own a horse worth more than £5. They were also forbidden to buy land, and they could not lease property for more than 31 years, while at the same time having to pay a rent that was to be at least-two thirds of the annual value of the land. Neither could a Catholic become a guardian, nor could they carry arms, while the ‘Laws of Inheritance’ were also altered so that a son or daughter who adopted the established Protestant Religion would become the sole heir/heiress to the property.
The Penal laws were essentially discriminatory laws introduced in an attempt to force Irish Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters (such as local Presbyterians) to accept the reformed Anglican Church and established Church of Ireland.
These wide ranging laws implemented for years required that Catholic bishops were banished completely from the country, while Parish Priests had to be ‘registered’ and also take the Oath of Abjuration. In ‘education’, Catholic & Dissenter were forbidden to have schools of their own or to have their children educated by teachers of their faiths, none could own a horse worth more than £5. They were also forbidden to buy land, and they could not lease property for more than 31 years, while at the same time having to pay a rent that was to be at least-two thirds of the annual value of the land. Neither could a Catholic become a guardian, nor could they carry arms, while the ‘Laws of Inheritance’ were also altered so that a son or daughter who adopted the established Protestant Religion would become the sole heir/heiress to the property.
Catholic Emancipation
An increasing movement for emancipation from these laws began and gathered momentum.
Some anti-Catholic & Protestant Dissenter aspects of the Penal Laws had been relieved slightly during the 1790’s but mostly remained unchanged. A campaign under the Irish Catholic lawyer and politician Daniel O'Connell and the Catholic Association led to renewed agitation for the abolition of the Test Act.
Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, the Anglo-Irish soldier, statesman and First Duke of Wellington, was at the peak of his enormous prestige as the victor of the Napoleonic Wars. He used his considerable political power and influence to steer the enabling legislation through the UK Parliament and persuaded King George IV to sign the Act into law under threat of resignation. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowed British and Irish Catholics to sit in the Parliament. Daniel O'Connell then in turn became the first Catholic MP to be seated since 1689.
As head of the Repeal Association, O'Connell mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union and the restoration of Irish self-government.
An increasing movement for emancipation from these laws began and gathered momentum.
Some anti-Catholic & Protestant Dissenter aspects of the Penal Laws had been relieved slightly during the 1790’s but mostly remained unchanged. A campaign under the Irish Catholic lawyer and politician Daniel O'Connell and the Catholic Association led to renewed agitation for the abolition of the Test Act.
Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, the Anglo-Irish soldier, statesman and First Duke of Wellington, was at the peak of his enormous prestige as the victor of the Napoleonic Wars. He used his considerable political power and influence to steer the enabling legislation through the UK Parliament and persuaded King George IV to sign the Act into law under threat of resignation. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowed British and Irish Catholics to sit in the Parliament. Daniel O'Connell then in turn became the first Catholic MP to be seated since 1689.
As head of the Repeal Association, O'Connell mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union and the restoration of Irish self-government.
Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) Duke of Wellington (1769-1852)
O'Connell's tactics were largely peaceful, using mass rallies to show the popular support for his campaign. While O'Connell failed to gain repeal of the Union, his efforts led to reforms in matters such as local government and the Poor Laws. However, these advancements were followed by the first Reform Act 1832, a principal condition of which was the removal of the poorer freeholders from the franchise, as it was argued that the qualifying income had not been amended for 400 years and that as a result, many of those who were qualified were not truly independent as secret ballots were not yet in force. Illiterate voters could be bought for little and political corruption was rife.
The Great Reform Act of 1832
Until the 1830s, British & Irish elections were neither representative nor balanced. A range of factors determined whether you were eligible to vote, including whether you lived in a county or a borough and whether your area was eligible to send an MP to Parliament at all.
In a few places all men could vote, but in the vast majority of locations it depended on whether you owned property or paid certain taxes. Some boroughs, such as those in the rapidly growing industrial towns of Birmingham and Manchester, had no MPs to represent them at all. At the same time, there were notorious 'rotten' boroughs, such as Old Sarum at Salisbury, which had two MPs but only seven voters. There were also 'pocket' boroughs – those owned by major landowners who chose their own MP. Moreover, with no secret ballot, voters were easily bribed or intimidated.
A range of factors, including a popular campaign by the Birmingham Political Union, caused many people to begin to realise that change was necessary. The Prime Minister at the time, the Duke of Wellington, while supportive of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, now remained defiantly against electoral emancipation or reform, and as a result, was rapidly forced out of office. King William IV asked the Whig, Earl Grey*, to form an administration and he used his position to pursue reform of the electoral system. The path of the resulting reforming Bill through Parliament was extremely tough and its being finally passed on 4th June 1832 was only as a result of widespread public unrest and the resignation of Earl Grey.
In its final form the Reform Act of 1832 increased the electorate from around 366,000 to 650,000. The vast majority of the working classes, as well as women, were still excluded from voting and the Act failed to introduce a secret ballot. The working classes felt betrayed by an act which made no real difference to their lives. However, the reform of Parliament had begun.
* According to the Grey family, the tea which is named after their Prime Minister ancestor was specially blended by a Chinese mandarin-speaking individual for Lord Grey, to suit the water at Howick Hall, the family seat in Northumberland, using bergamot in particular to offset the preponderance of lime in the local water. Lady Grey used it to entertain in London as a political hostess, and it proved so popular that she was asked if it could be sold to others, which is how Twinings came to market it as a brand.
Until the 1830s, British & Irish elections were neither representative nor balanced. A range of factors determined whether you were eligible to vote, including whether you lived in a county or a borough and whether your area was eligible to send an MP to Parliament at all.
In a few places all men could vote, but in the vast majority of locations it depended on whether you owned property or paid certain taxes. Some boroughs, such as those in the rapidly growing industrial towns of Birmingham and Manchester, had no MPs to represent them at all. At the same time, there were notorious 'rotten' boroughs, such as Old Sarum at Salisbury, which had two MPs but only seven voters. There were also 'pocket' boroughs – those owned by major landowners who chose their own MP. Moreover, with no secret ballot, voters were easily bribed or intimidated.
A range of factors, including a popular campaign by the Birmingham Political Union, caused many people to begin to realise that change was necessary. The Prime Minister at the time, the Duke of Wellington, while supportive of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, now remained defiantly against electoral emancipation or reform, and as a result, was rapidly forced out of office. King William IV asked the Whig, Earl Grey*, to form an administration and he used his position to pursue reform of the electoral system. The path of the resulting reforming Bill through Parliament was extremely tough and its being finally passed on 4th June 1832 was only as a result of widespread public unrest and the resignation of Earl Grey.
In its final form the Reform Act of 1832 increased the electorate from around 366,000 to 650,000. The vast majority of the working classes, as well as women, were still excluded from voting and the Act failed to introduce a secret ballot. The working classes felt betrayed by an act which made no real difference to their lives. However, the reform of Parliament had begun.
* According to the Grey family, the tea which is named after their Prime Minister ancestor was specially blended by a Chinese mandarin-speaking individual for Lord Grey, to suit the water at Howick Hall, the family seat in Northumberland, using bergamot in particular to offset the preponderance of lime in the local water. Lady Grey used it to entertain in London as a political hostess, and it proved so popular that she was asked if it could be sold to others, which is how Twinings came to market it as a brand.
Satiricial political cartoons on 'Rotten Boroughs' removed by the Repeal Act 1832
Social Unrest
Despite O'Connell's peaceful methods, there was also a good deal of sporadic violence and rural unrest in the country in the first half of the 19th century. Tensions between the rapidly growing rural population on one side and their landlords and the state on the other, gave rise to much agrarian violence and social unrest.
Secret agriarian societies such as the Whiteboys and the Ribbonmen used sabotage and violence to intimidate landlords into better treatment of their tenants. The most sustained outbreak of violence was the Tithe War of the 1830s, over the obligation of the mostly Catholic peasantry to pay tithes to the Protestant Church of Ireland. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was set up to police rural areas in response to this violence.
While the island was politically difficult and impoverished in the 1830’s, a holocaust of unimagined proportions, death, disease, emigration and widespread, generational effect was about to eclipse all else in the next decade.
Despite O'Connell's peaceful methods, there was also a good deal of sporadic violence and rural unrest in the country in the first half of the 19th century. Tensions between the rapidly growing rural population on one side and their landlords and the state on the other, gave rise to much agrarian violence and social unrest.
Secret agriarian societies such as the Whiteboys and the Ribbonmen used sabotage and violence to intimidate landlords into better treatment of their tenants. The most sustained outbreak of violence was the Tithe War of the 1830s, over the obligation of the mostly Catholic peasantry to pay tithes to the Protestant Church of Ireland. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was set up to police rural areas in response to this violence.
While the island was politically difficult and impoverished in the 1830’s, a holocaust of unimagined proportions, death, disease, emigration and widespread, generational effect was about to eclipse all else in the next decade.
What was a Forty Shilling Freeholder?
Forty-shilling freeholders were a group of people who had the parliamentary franchise to vote in borough and parliamentary elections by possessing freehold property, or lands held directly from the king, paying an annual rent of at least forty shillings clear of all charges. Using such a qualification to vote using the ownership and value of property, and the creation of a group of forty-shilling freeholders, was practiced in many jurisdictions such as England, Scotland, Ireland, the United States of America, Australia and Canada.
In Ireland before 1829, the franchise for county constituencies was restricted to forty-shilling freeholders.
This gave anyone who owned or rented land that was worth forty shillings (£2) or more, the right to vote.
The custom and practice of course was that tenant farmers were told who to vote for by their landlords, so the notions of true voting rights were in name only.
As a consequence they were given the nickname, the "forty-shilling freeholders". This included many Roman Catholics such as Timothy Murphy, who obtained the vote under the Catholic Relief Act 1793, at first only for the Parliament of Ireland in Dublin and then from 1801 for the Parliament of the United Kingdom. However, Roman Catholic candidates if elected were not allowed to sit in Parliament until 1829.
The Catholic Relief Act 1829 conversely raised the minimum franchise qualification to ten pounds valuation, now excluded many previous voters, both Protestant and Catholic, such as the Forty Shilling Freeholders in county areas and this remained the basis of the county franchise in Ireland until it was widened again in 1885.
The forty shilling qualification however continued after 1829 in Irish boroughs, which had the status of a corporate county (a county of itself) which were Dublin City and Cork City.
So while many thousands of others living in rural and other areas had been immediately disenfranchised, others such as Timothy Murphy residing within areas such as both cities continued with their right to vote.
A Topographical Directory of Ireland, published in 1837, describes the area covered by the Cork borough constituency:
"....The county of the city comprises a populous rural district of great beauty and fertility, watered by several small rivulets and intersected by the river Lee and its noble estuary: it is bounded on the north by the barony of Fermoy, on the east by that of Barrymore, on the south by Kerricurrihy, and on the west by Muskerry: it comprehends the parishes of St. Finbarr, Christ-Church or the Holy Trinity, St. Peter, St. Mary Shandon, St. Anne Shandon, St. Paul and St. Nicholas, all, except part of St. Finbarr's, within the city and suburbs, and those of Curricuppane, Carrigrohanemore, Kilcully, and Rathcoony, together with parts of the parishes of Killanully or Killingly, Carrigaline, Dunbullogue or Carrignavar, Ballinaboy, Inniskenny, Kilnaglory, White-church, and Templemichael, without those limits; and contains, according to the Ordnance survey, an area of 44,463 statute acres, of which, 2396 are occupied by the city and suburbs..."
The number of voters registered in Cork up to January 2nd, 1836, amounted to 4791, of whom 1065 were freemen; 2727 £10 householders; 105 £50, 152 £20, and 608 forty-shilling freeholders; 3 £50, 7 £20, and 2 £10 rent-chargers; and 1 £50, 26 £20, and 95 £10 leaseholders: the sheriffs are the returning officers.
Despite effectively disenfranchising many, historians credit the Reform Act 1832 with launching modern democracy in Britain and Ireland. Effectively, the State began to exist independently of the Monarchy.
A substantial effect of the Act was also the elimination of "rotten" or "pocket borough", more formally known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, which were a parliamentary borough or constituency in Great Britain or Ireland that had a very small to a tiny electorate and could be used by a patron to gain unrepresentative influence within the unreformed House of Commons.
In 1918, with the introduction of a full adult male franchise, property qualifications only affected some of the new women voters (who were not occupiers of a dwelling or the wife of an occupier in the constituency) and plural voting business property owners. They needed respectively a £5 and £10 qualification — and so the forty shilling qualification ended.
Despite effectively disenfranchising many, historians credit the Reform Act 1832 with launching modern democracy in Britain and Ireland. Effectively, the State began to exist independently of the Monarchy.
A substantial effect of the Act was also the elimination of "rotten" or "pocket borough", more formally known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, which were a parliamentary borough or constituency in Great Britain or Ireland that had a very small to a tiny electorate and could be used by a patron to gain unrepresentative influence within the unreformed House of Commons.
In 1918, with the introduction of a full adult male franchise, property qualifications only affected some of the new women voters (who were not occupiers of a dwelling or the wife of an occupier in the constituency) and plural voting business property owners. They needed respectively a £5 and £10 qualification — and so the forty shilling qualification ended.
Grand, that’s as clear as mud then. So what about the ‘Fictitious Votes (Ireland) Committee?
Well, prior to and following the passage of the Reform Act of 1832 there were multiple allegations of corruption and vote rigging in order for it to pass.
The Parliamentary Select Committee formed to investigate this was tasked with the job of rooting out and either proving or disproving such allegations. This they set to with an early Victorian relish, ratcheting up thousands of hours of testimony and enquiry, reams of written reports, boards of enquiry, dozens of parliamentary questions (and of course expenses too) but at the end, found little evidence of any irregular activity.
As if to justify their time and vast expense, the committee next produced with equal thoroughness some three impressive reports made up of nineteen volumes of testimony and hearings which did little since then but gather dust in parliamentary libraries.
Almost two centuries later, these volumes do provide a surprising insight into the politics and structures of the time and yet are strangely familiar to the reader in 2017 Ireland. The language may be more formal and eloquently verbose but in many ways it's similar to the transcripts of the multiple Tribunals and inquiries that have been held in this country over the last twenty years.
However, one positive outcome of the 'Fictitious Votes' investigation was that police and magistrates were now obliged to compile registers of those entitled to vote throughout Ireland between 1832 and 1837 under the terms of the reform act. This formalised the individual franchise, and led to further and rather gradual democratic reforms. This also led to the Electoral Roll or Register.
But this online aside started with Timothy and will also end with him.
Timothy was an impoverished, illiterate, Roman Catholic labourer who for much of his life was disenfranchised but he did possess a vote which was valued enough by the powers that were in 1838 to record his existence.
Timothy lived for another five years in Blarney Lane before passing away in 1843.
With so few written records surviving from this era, such a fragment of information as the 1838 record for Timothy Murphy in a Parliamentary report is a valuable insight to a time radically different from today.
Well, prior to and following the passage of the Reform Act of 1832 there were multiple allegations of corruption and vote rigging in order for it to pass.
The Parliamentary Select Committee formed to investigate this was tasked with the job of rooting out and either proving or disproving such allegations. This they set to with an early Victorian relish, ratcheting up thousands of hours of testimony and enquiry, reams of written reports, boards of enquiry, dozens of parliamentary questions (and of course expenses too) but at the end, found little evidence of any irregular activity.
As if to justify their time and vast expense, the committee next produced with equal thoroughness some three impressive reports made up of nineteen volumes of testimony and hearings which did little since then but gather dust in parliamentary libraries.
Almost two centuries later, these volumes do provide a surprising insight into the politics and structures of the time and yet are strangely familiar to the reader in 2017 Ireland. The language may be more formal and eloquently verbose but in many ways it's similar to the transcripts of the multiple Tribunals and inquiries that have been held in this country over the last twenty years.
However, one positive outcome of the 'Fictitious Votes' investigation was that police and magistrates were now obliged to compile registers of those entitled to vote throughout Ireland between 1832 and 1837 under the terms of the reform act. This formalised the individual franchise, and led to further and rather gradual democratic reforms. This also led to the Electoral Roll or Register.
But this online aside started with Timothy and will also end with him.
Timothy was an impoverished, illiterate, Roman Catholic labourer who for much of his life was disenfranchised but he did possess a vote which was valued enough by the powers that were in 1838 to record his existence.
Timothy lived for another five years in Blarney Lane before passing away in 1843.
With so few written records surviving from this era, such a fragment of information as the 1838 record for Timothy Murphy in a Parliamentary report is a valuable insight to a time radically different from today.
Sources:
Fictitious and improper votes in Ireland : third report of the Select Committee on Fictitious Votes (Ireland), minutes of evidence, appendix and index by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Fictitious Votes (Ireland) Publication date 1838
https://archive.org/details/op1245447-1001
Fictitious and improper votes in Ireland : third report of the Select Committee on Fictitious Votes (Ireland), minutes of evidence, appendix and index by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Fictitious Votes (Ireland) Publication date 1838
https://archive.org/details/op1245447-1001